


Let's Do The Time Warp Again! Or Not!

by Anonymous



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Baekhyun has popcorn, Electricity, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Gen, Jong-bois are totally siblings, Junmyeon is reasonably paranoid about his kids, Kim Jongdae is Confused, Kim Jongdae | Chen is a Little Shit, MAMA Era Powers (EXO), Minseok tries to be a relationship therapist, Poor Zi Tao, Static shocks as the most painful thing people experience evaaaar, The Rest of EXO is Just Done, Time Loop, Time Travel, When you're part of the final time loop, Yi Fan is a good hyung but also completely intimidating, Zi Tao is Going to Kill Somebody (and it's Chen)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:49:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23028088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Every time Chen shocks Tao by accident, he goes back a few minutes. This gets increasingly confusing. But Chen has no idea
Comments: 6
Kudos: 21
Collections: Magika Astra: Thundervalor





	Let's Do The Time Warp Again! Or Not!

**Author's Note:**

> **Archive Number:** MA-TV-12  
>  **Conduit:** Every time Chen shocks Tao by accident, he goes back a few minutes. This gets increasingly confusing.
> 
>  **Author's Note:** Please enjoy my short return to writing ^-^

Somewhere, a normally happy face was scowling in irritation.

 _Okay, Jongdae,_ he thought to himself sternly, _try again. What kind of ramen did hyung ask you to get?_ He looked at the packages he held with a narrowed look, weighing their sins in each hand. The happy chicken child on the wrappings did not seem affected by his powerful stare. Jongdae felt even more affronted at its impertinence under the glare of the grocery store lighting.

He briefly toyed with the idea of calling his hyung to just ask for a reminder, but now that Jongdae was convinced this feathered fiend was laughing at him, he refused to back down or surrender.

_You will not defeat me, you- you chicken!_

“Hyung, maybe just get both of them instead of melting them by accident? Suho-hyung isn’t that particular about the brand,” came a considerate voice from behind him in the form of his taller dongsaeng.

How little he understood Jongdae’s plight.

“Jongin, I was asked to remember one thing,” he began dramatically, the fluorescent lights shining like a spotlight, “and one thing only. The single most important brand hyung wanted me to find at the store they’ve been out of for weeks. Weeks! He was dying for it!”

With his back still to Jongin, Jongdae missed the long-suffering sighed response to his antics. Packages quickly plucked from his grasp, Jongdae heard the unmistakable crackle of plastic being thrown into the cart. Pouting, he turned back to face his dongsaeng who had already quickmarched off, one wheel aggressively squeaking the whole way down the aisle. Walking towards the departing man rapidly, and turning the corner to follow him, Jongdae discovered the brown head of hair was not in sight.

Finally discovering him in the condiments aisle, Jongdae moved slowly and cautiously, much as a hunter would approach their easily startled prey – or perhaps like an easily amused man finding a new prank to pull.

And he certainly had created a new prank. It was something of a shock to think Jongdae had never considered the effectiveness of a small static shock as a little joke.

“OH SH-!”

Jongin fumbled with the sesame oil as his muscles jerked at the sudden intrusion of electricity from Jongdae’s sparking finger, disappearing for a moment as his powers kicked in, and resulted in only one thought through Jongdae’s head….

_It would have been even better if I’d done it to Tao instead._

* * *

“Jong-ah! I said I was sorry!”

“Yes, hyung, and yet I was the one that had to apologize to the poor worker that had to clean up your little mess!”

Jongdae considered briefly arguing the point that it was not “his” mess, but decided his dongsaeng really did not need any more challenges today.

Junmyeon groaned from his place on the couch. “What could you two get up to in the hour you were gone to the _store_?”

The two exchanged brief glances and, through silent mutual agreement, replied, “Nothing, hyung.”

Their elder hyung froze from his transit from the couch and stared intently at the two anxious dongsaengs in his sights. “Did you get us banned from the store?”

“They better not have gotten us banned from the store!” came the righteous (but distant and incorrect) voice of Chanyeol from the open door to the bathroom. He marched out – all three noted the slightly steaming shoulders from his powers, but also that he was covered in the foam of some new facial skin care – and started rubbing vigorously at the sweet smelling cleanser. “If. You. Got. Us. Banned,” he began, before sputtering when he tasted the chemicals getting into his mouth.

“We aren’t banned Chanyeol-hyung! And hyung and I both helped the staff clean up the _small_ mess.” Jongin finished his statement strongly, but eyeing his recent excursion buddy, also strongly threw him under the bus. “It was totally hyung’s fault.”

Gasping, Jongdae ask, “Yah, why?!”

Jongin threw a screwed up face of disgust towards his lightning friend, demanding, “Are you seriously arguing the point that me dropping the sesame oil from your power was totally your fault?”

A significant pause passed. Jongdae struggled to come up with a retort beyond, “It’s not _not_ that” which would hardly improve his case, but he did consider himself lucky that Junmyeon appeared to give up on the situation, and decided to leave them to their own devices.

Instead, Jongdae tried to change the subject with the rather obvious observation that no one else was in the house.

“Oh, yeah, I think Minseok went out for a meeting and…Sehun, Baekhyun, Kyungsoo, and- no, wait,” Chanyeol, having given up on his skin care for a moment, tried counting off the people he mentioned to be certain of who left and who didn’t. Jongin and Jongdae decided to spare him the mental math with 12 adult men, and said everyone would be back when they got hungry or bored.

_Speaking of, when’s lunch?_

* * *

While it was hardly unusual to not catch one of their friends coming or going, Jongdae was genuinely concerned that he had not seen Zitao all day. Normally by dinner time, he was back home and helping with dinner. Mainly by setting the table, but the time traveller was still considered helpful by whatever poor soul had kitchen duty. For Zitao to miss lunch and dinner and not tell anyone (Jongdae) where he was seemed out of character for the soft-hearted man. Everyone else was happily ensconced in various rooms or back out hitting up the night scene.

Except Jongdae and Minseok apparently. Minseok was breathing deeply in that very controlled manner of a man seeking patience. Jongdae was honestly surprised that so many of his friends were doing that today. “Jongdae. I told you that Zitao is fine and _did_ tell people that he was okay. I spoke with him, in person, at length, around noon and he specifically was asking for your whereabouts. I don’t know what you did, but just calm down and plan your apology.”

Jongdae scowled and dropped heavily back into the armchair after his pacing. Arms crossed petulantly, he replied, “I would apologize if I knew why he was avoiding me, hyung, but I have no idea. I haven’t actually spoken with him at all today and nothing happened at all yesterday!”

His elder hyung hummed in placation, inquiring, “And before yesterday?” but as hard as Jongdae thought, nothing was coming to him. Not even a long-gone joke that might have set Tao off.

He froze, and then shook himself free of the ridiculous thought.

Minseok did not miss the lapse, and his gaze sharpened infinitesimally. “Thought of something?”

While Jongdae shrugged noncommittally, he admitted, “Unless Tao recently developed a second ability to read people’s minds, I don’t think what I’m thinking of caused it.”

“Jongdae...” He winced at the tone, but knew he would have to explain himself.

“When I shocked Kai in the grocery store, I thought about how it would have been more fun to do it to Tao. But,” the electricity wielder defended against unspoken disapproval, “I didn’t even think about it afterward! I was too busy trying to deal with the mess in the store and then Junmyeon wasn’t happy, and-”

“Jongdae, calm down before you spark everywhere. You’re fine. I’m not accusing you of anything. I’m trying to help you both.”

He breathed deeply for a few beats. Breathed out. He shivered at the sudden release of tension.

Slumping forward a bit, Jongdae rubbed at his temples. “Hyung, I don’t actually know what to do.”

Minseok reached an arm around slouching shoulders, wrapping it around his younger friend like a warm blanket. “When the time comes and Tao is back, communicate. Don’t assume you did nothing wrong and don’t let him slink off without talking with someone about what happened. It won’t do either of you any good.”

Jongdae nodded, though he wondered if they would need a mediator in the end to prevent a murder. Immediately he remembered all of the times Zitao would cry in the face of frustration and realized they might need someone to hug the emotions out of them instead. Tao wouldn’t want to _hurt_ him, just cover him in righteous snot and tears.

* * *

“Kim Jongdae, I am going to kill you!”

Squeaking in surprise, the electricity-wielder brought his hands over his head as he turned for protection, protesting, “I didn’t even do anything!” Belatedly he remembered Minseok-hyung’s words, and followed quickly with, “Maybe you can tell me what’s been going on?”

Zitao, who Jongdae could have sworn never had electricity powers, seemed to spark in agitation, only highlighted further by his red-rimmed eyes like he was going without sleep over several days. Jongdae started edging backwards very slowly. “What’s going on? I’ve been sent back in time almost 87 times in the last 15 hours because of your stupid, irritating, frustra-”

Jongdae quickly interrupted the diatribe with genuine confusion and annoyance, “Hold on! Tao we agreed that blaming us in the present for things that we did in _a_ past wasn’t fair after the Sehun incident!”

“THAT’S WHY YOU’RE STILL ALIVE YOU BASTARD!”

 _9 out of 10 for that dive, Jongdae_ , he thought to himself from his new protected spot through the doorway, though he admitted that Tao probably wouldn’t kill him no matter how angry he was despite… sparking.

“Alright, alright,” came the angelic voice of reason hidden inside the terrifyingly tall and just generally terrifying figure of Kris. “What are we screaming about and remember, I can smell bullshit.”

Baekhyun, having been off in the corner watching the situation like a gladiator match, chimed in, “I think you mean you can smell their fear when they piss themselves in terror.”

Zitao appalled face spoke for all three of them, but Kris ignored the peanut gallery in favor of addressing the actual issue. His draconic eyes glint with power and fatherly disapproval.

Tao immediately started babbling about infinite time loops, getting startled every time Jongdae shocked him and being sent back a few seconds or a few minutes or a _few hours_ , getting pranked so many times by so many iterations of Jongdae that he couldn’t even be sure how many times the same thing happened over and over and he’s so tired because it may be 15 hours in time but for Tao who kept jumping back-

Seeing his friend so exhausted and frustrated – _because of me? –_ Jongdae decided that he would take any chastisement like an adult and face the issue head-on. Whatever punishment or apology Kris meted out, the little spark in him would not object…

“You have dish duty for the next three weeks, Sparky. Maybe that’ll help you reign in your powers and your propensity for poking”

 _I won’t object verbally at least,_ Jongdae thought dully, while Baekhyun applauded the use of alliteration.

But Zitao gained an unholy grin, stretched wide below deep eye-bags, and reached a finger out.

“OH FUCK!”

Jongdae curled up in on himself at the intrusive electricity and slight pain from the shock. While the rest of their friends seemed somewhere between surprised ( _perhaps, shocked? Ha ha, ow_ ) and amused, Zitao finally seemed ready to pass out now that his revenge had been achieved and he was no longer sparking.

Most of the group agreed and started setting out the spare sleeping mats and futons, while Jongdae pouted and slogged off to take care of the dishes. Piles and piles of dishes.

* * *

“So, hyung,” Zitao began quietly, the sky no longer velvety with darkness though their friends remained silent in sleep, “can I ask why you didn’t shook-” he tiredly babbled for a moment in a vain attempt to screw his speech back into place. Trying again, “Why didn’t you shock me before? Do you know what changed?”

Jongdae had been wracking his brain over that exact question for hours, keeping him up far later than his friends, but only heightening his awareness of how tired Tao looked compared to his own feelings of minor exhaustion.

“I thought about shocking you yesterday for maybe a second in the morning, but I actually shocked Jongin-ah first and that made a huge mess, so I didn’t think about it after.”

Hearing the slight shifting from the futon next to him, Jongdae kept his eyes closed in mute penance. He felt a hand tug on his own fingers gently, and the two wrapped up in a warm knot of affection and apology.

They listened to the breathing bodies around them, calming, soothing, and the time traveler slightly squeezed their hands for attention. “I think I got caught up in a timeline where you shocked me first and then each one after, you shocked me a couple times again. You know how you get fixated sometimes? I think a few of those times you just didn’t stop because you wanted to have fun. You didn’t realize in any of them what you were doing.”

“And that was wrong, Tao-tao. I’m so sorry.”

When the rest of the group finally woke up, they found the adorable sight of Tao using Jongdae as a body pillow. They assumed Zitao decided that there was no need to apologize, so long as Jongdae accepted his new fate as cuddle-buddy for the forseeable future.


End file.
